Augmented reality system

ABSTRACT

The disclosure concerns an augmented reality method in which visual information concerning a real-world object, structure or environment is gathered and a deformation operation is performed on that visual information to generate virtual content that may be displayed in place of, or additionally to, real-time captured image content of the real-world object, structure or environment. Some particular embodiments concern the sharing of visual environment data and/or information characterizing the deformation operation between client devices.

BACKGROUND

Augmented reality (AR) refers to using computer generated enhancementsto add new information into images in a real-time or near real-timefashion. For example, video images of a wall output on a display of adevice may be enhanced with display details that are not present on thewall, but that are generated to appear as if they are on the wall by anaugmented reality system. Such systems require a complex mix of imagecapture information that is integrated and matched with the augmentedreality information that is to be added to a captured scene in a waythat attempts to seamlessly present a final image from a perspectivedetermined by the image capture device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

Various ones of the appended drawings merely illustrate exampleembodiments of the present disclosure and should not be considered aslimiting its scope.

To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, themost significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to thefigure number in which that element is first introduced.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing an example messaging system forexchanging data (e.g., messages and associated content) over a network.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram showing further details of certainapplications and subsystems hosted in an application server, such as theapplication server in FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating certain operations of aclient device according to example embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary technique forgenerating a texture map and 3D mesh at a client device according tocertain example embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary technique fortracking changes in localization of a client device.

FIG. 5 illustrates the application of a transformation on a 3D mesh inaccordance with certain example embodiments.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate the display of captured image views andaugmented image views in a device in accordance with certain exampleembodiments.

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a transformation effect in accordance withcertain embodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 8A and 8B illustrate a transformation effect in accordance withother embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a representative softwarearchitecture, which may be used in conjunction with various hardwarearchitectures herein described.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine,according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from amachine-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) andperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Glossary

“CLIENT DEVICE” in this context refers to any machine that interfaces toa communications network to obtain resources from one or more serversystems or other client devices. A client device may be, but is notlimited to, a mobile phone, desktop computer, laptop, portable digitalassistants (PDAs), smartphones, tablets, ultrabooks, netbooks, laptops,multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumerelectronics, game consoles, set-top boxes, or any other communicationdevice that a user may use to access a network.

“COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK” in this context refers to one or more portionsof a network that may be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, avirtual private network (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wirelessLAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), ametropolitan area network (MAN), the Internet, a portion of theInternet, a portion of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), aplain old telephone service (POTS) network, a cellular telephonenetwork, a wireless network, a Wi-Fi® network, another type of network,or a combination of two or more such networks. For example, a network ora portion of a network may include a wireless or cellular network andthe coupling may be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) connection, aGlobal System for Mobile communications (GSM) connection, or other typeof cellular or wireless coupling. In this example, the coupling mayimplement any of a variety of types of data transfer technology, such asSingle Carrier Radio Transmission Technology (1×RTT), Evolution-DataOptimized (EVDO) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)technology, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology,third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) including 3G, fourthgeneration wireless (4G) networks, Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem (UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Long Term Evolution (LTE)standard, others defined by various standard setting organizations,other long range protocols, or other data transfer technology.

“EPHEMERAL MESSAGE” in this context refers to a message that isaccessible for a time-limited duration. An ephemeral message may be atext, an image, augmented reality content, a video and the like. Theaccess time for the ephemeral message may be set by the message sender.Alternatively, the access time may be a default setting or a settingspecified by the recipient. Regardless of the setting technique, themessage is transitory.

“CARRIER SIGNAL” in this context refers to any intangible medium that iscapable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution bythe machine, and includes digital or analog communications signals orother intangible medium to facilitate communication of suchinstructions. Instructions may be transmitted or received over thenetwork using a transmission medium via a network interface device andusing any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols.

“MACHINE-READABLE MEDIUM” in this context refers to a component, deviceor other non-transitory, tangible media able to store instructions anddata temporarily or permanently and may include, but is not be limitedto, random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), buffer memory,flash memory, optical media, magnetic media, cache memory, other typesof storage (e.g., Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM))and/or any suitable combination thereof. The term “machine-readablemedium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media(e.g., a centralized or distributed database, or associated caches andservers) able to store instructions. The term “machine-readable medium”shall also be taken to include any medium, or combination of multiplemedia, that is capable of storing instructions (e.g., code) forexecution by a machine, such that the instructions, when executed by oneor more processors of the machine, cause the machine to perform any oneor more of the methodologies described herein. Accordingly, a“machine-readable medium” refers to a single storage apparatus ordevice, as well as “cloud-based” storage systems or storage networksthat include multiple storage apparatus or devices. Unless qualified bythe term “non-transitory”, the term “machine-readable medium” shouldalso be taken to include carrier signals and other transitory mediacapable of storing instructions and data temporarily or permanently.

“COMPONENT” in this context refers to a device, physical entity or logichaving boundaries defined by function or subroutine calls, branchpoints, application program interfaces (APIs), or other technologiesthat provide for the partitioning or modularization of particularprocessing or control functions. Components may be combined via theirinterfaces with other components to carry out a machine process. Acomponent may be a packaged functional hardware unit designed for usewith other components and a part of a program that usually performs aparticular function of related functions. Components may constituteeither software components (e.g., code embodied on a machine-readablemedium) or hardware components. A “hardware component” is a tangibleunit capable of performing certain operations and may be configured orarranged in a certain physical manner. In various example embodiments,one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone computer system, aclient computer system, or a server computer system) or one or morehardware components of a computer system (e.g., a processor or a groupof processors) may be configured by software (e.g., an application orapplication portion) as a hardware component that operates to performcertain operations as described herein. A hardware component may also beimplemented mechanically, electronically, or any suitable combinationthereof. For example, a hardware component may include dedicatedcircuitry or logic that is permanently configured to perform certainoperations. A hardware component may be a special-purpose processor,such as a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or an ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). A hardware component may alsoinclude programmable logic or circuitry that is temporarily configuredby software to perform certain operations. For example, a hardwarecomponent may include software executed by a general-purpose processoror other programmable processor. Once configured by such software,hardware components become specific machines (or specific components ofa machine) uniquely tailored to perform the configured functions and areno longer general-purpose processors. It will be appreciated that thedecision to implement a hardware component mechanically, in dedicatedand permanently configured circuitry, or in temporarily configuredcircuitry (e.g., configured by software) may be driven by cost and timeconsiderations. Accordingly, the phrase “hardware component” (or“hardware-implemented component”) should be understood to encompass atangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed,permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily configured(e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner or to perform certainoperations described herein. Considering embodiments in which hardwarecomponents are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed), each of thehardware components need not be configured or instantiated at any oneinstance in time. For example, where a hardware component comprises ageneral-purpose processor configured by software to become aspecial-purpose processor, the general-purpose processor may beconfigured as respectively different special-purpose processors (e.g.,comprising different hardware components) at different times. Softwareaccordingly configures a particular processor or processors, forexample, to constitute a particular hardware component at one instanceof time and to constitute a different hardware component at a differentinstance of time. Hardware components can provide information to, andreceive information from, other hardware components. Accordingly, thedescribed hardware components may be regarded as being communicativelycoupled. Where multiple hardware components exist contemporaneously,communications may be achieved through signal transmission (e.g., overappropriate circuits and buses) between or among two or more of thehardware components. In embodiments in which multiple hardwarecomponents are configured or instantiated at different times,communications between such hardware components may be achieved, forexample, through the storage and retrieval of information in memorystructures to which the multiple hardware components have access. Forexample, one hardware component may perform an operation and store theoutput of that operation in a memory device to which it iscommunicatively coupled. A further hardware component may then, at alater time, access the memory device to retrieve and process the storedoutput. Hardware components may also initiate communications with inputor output devices, and can operate on a resource (e.g., a collection ofinformation). The various operations of example methods described hereinmay be performed, at least partially, by one or more processors that aretemporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured toperform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanentlyconfigured, such processors may constitute processor-implementedcomponents that operate to perform one or more operations or functionsdescribed herein. As used herein, “processor-implemented component”refers to a hardware component implemented using one or more processors.Similarly, the methods described herein may be at least partiallyprocessor-implemented, with a particular processor or processors beingan example of hardware. For example, at least some of the operations ofa method may be performed by one or more processors orprocessor-implemented components. Moreover, the one or more processorsmay also operate to support performance of the relevant operations in a“cloud computing” environment or as a “software as a service” (SaaS).For example, at least some of the operations may be performed by a groupof computers (as examples of machines including processors), with theseoperations being accessible via a network (e.g., the Internet) and viaone or more appropriate interfaces (e.g., an Application ProgramInterface (API)). The performance of certain of the operations may bedistributed among the processors, not only residing within a singlemachine, but deployed across a number of machines. In some exampleembodiments, the processors or processor-implemented components may belocated in a single geographic location (e.g., within a homeenvironment, an office environment, or a server farm). In other exampleembodiments, the processors or processor-implemented components may bedistributed across a number of geographic locations.

“PROCESSOR” in this context refers to any circuit or virtual circuit (aphysical circuit emulated by logic executing on an actual processor)that manipulates data values according to control signals (e.g.,“commands”, “op codes”, “machine code”, etc.) and which producescorresponding output signals that are applied to operate a machine. Aprocessor may, for example, be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), aReduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) processor, a ComplexInstruction Set Computing (CISC) processor, a Graphics Processing Unit(GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application SpecificIntegrated Circuit (ASIC), a Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC)or any combination thereof. A processor may further be a multi-coreprocessor having two or more independent processors (sometimes referredto as “cores”) that may execute instructions contemporaneously.

“TIMESTAMP” in this context refers to a sequence of characters orencoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, forexample giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a smallfraction of a second.

SUMMARY

The following relates to augmented reality image processing andreproduction of augmented reality content. Some particular embodimentsdescribe obtaining visual information concerning a real-world object,structure or environment and applying a deformation operation on thatvisual information to generate virtual content that may be displayed inplace of, or additionally to, real-time captured image content of thereal-world object, structure or environment. Some particular embodimentsdescribe using an initial rough location estimate to identify visualenvironment data, including 3D point cloud models, texture data andfaçade data, that describe objects, buildings, structures etc. that arelocal to that initial rough location estimate. Some particularembodiments describe processing of images captured by a client device togenerate visual environment data, including 3D point cloud models,texture data and façade data, that describe real-world objects,buildings, structures etc. Some particular embodiments concern thesharing of visual environment data and/or information characterizing thedeformation operation between client devices.

The description that follows includes systems, devices, and methods thatillustrate embodiments of the disclosure. In the following description,for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forthin order to provide an understanding of various embodiments of theinventive subject matter. It will be evident, however, to those skilledin the art, that embodiments of the inventive subject matter may bepracticed without these specific details. In general, well-knowninstruction instances, protocols, structures, and techniques are notnecessarily shown in detail.

Augmented reality, as described herein, refers to systems and devicesthat capture images of real-world objects or environments in the fieldof view of a capture device or user and enhance those images withadditional information, and then present the enhanced information on adisplay. This enables, for example, a user to capture a video stream ofa scene or environment using a camera function of a smartphone orwearable device, and an output display of the smartphone or wearabledevice to present the scene as visible to the user along with additionalinformation. This additional information may include placing virtualobjects in the scene or environment so the virtual objects are presentedas if they existed in the scene. Aspects of such virtual objects areprocessed to occlude the virtual object if another real or virtualobject passes in front of the virtual object as shown from theperspective of the image sensor capturing the environment. Such virtualobjects are also processed to maintain their relationship with realobjects as both real and virtual objects move over time, and as theperspective (i.e. orientation, pose and/or location) of the image sensorcapturing the environment changes. Examples of virtual objects includevideo images, still content, text information, three dimensionalanimations and hologram representations, conventional multimedia contentdisplayed upon a virtual two dimensional surface overlaying a blankreal-world wall, and visual effects applied to at least a portion of theoutput display of a user device.

For clarity, the terms “real” and “real-world” are used herein to referto objective physical reality. Images of real, material, objects andenvironments may be captured in a physical image capture device, such asa digital camera, and these images will replicate the user's ownperception of such objects or environments. The term “real” contrastswith “virtual”, the latter term denoting the operation of computersimulation. Augmented reality (AR) may therefore be considered torepresent an intermediate level of abstraction in a continuum betweenobjective reality and a fully simulated or “virtual” reality (VR). AR,as used herein, therefore refers to a reality that mixes real andvirtual elements to varying degrees. Where the virtual elementsdominate, some authors would adopt the term “augmented virtuality”. Forsimplicity, the term augmented reality is used here to refer to anymixed reality, specifically including (real-element dominated)“augmented reality” and “augmented virtuality”.

A number of issues arise when attempting to balance the needs for aclose correlation between real and virtual objects, maintenance inreal-time, and acceptable processing burden. When “dressing” real-world,three dimensional (3D) structures with virtual objects, the scale of the3D structure can mean that any detailed model used to represent thestructure when generating and applying the virtual objects may requiresignificant levels of computation power, potentially degrading theability to reproduce and maintain the virtual object in real-time.

The generation of suitable models of 3D structures as an environment inwhich virtual content is applied can be performed in advance of thereproduction of the virtual content by a user device such as asmartphone or wearable device.

One approach to 3D modelling relies on the processing of large sets ofimages (ranging from sets of the order of thousands of images tolarge-scale data sets having tens of millions of images) all related toa particular environment, architectural or natural structure orlocation. The constituent images may be collated from images captured bya plurality of devices (such as consumer smartphones and digitalcameras). Such “crowdsourced” image data sets may vary greatly in termsof appearance and quality and are not likely to be synchronized withother such images.

Other image data sets may be collected by harnessing the image capturefacilities of dedicated image capture devices (e.g., digital cameras andunmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-borne image capture equipment), which inprinciple provides greater consistency and control over the resultingdata set.

In each case, the captured images are stored, typically uploaded todistributed storage devices, for future redistribution and/or processing(e.g. stored on a cloud-based storage facility).

The task facing the modeler is to recover the 3D geometry and appearanceof the 3D scene from 2D photographs/videos captured from multipleviewpoints. A first step is often to gather together images according toassociated data—a geolocation in metadata or an image title indicatingthe target of the image, for instance. Associated images may then beprocessed to extract 3D points that may be used to anchor spatialrelationships with other images from other camera poses. Clearly, theuse of dedicated image capture devices at known locations, poses, etc.allows the modeler to construct a data asset with easily discovered dataassociations.

In a technique known as Structure from Motion (SfM), associated images(i.e. plural two-dimensional images of a collection of 3D points,assumed to be static 3D points, from different perspectives) areprocessed to generate a 3D geometry having the greatest probability ofbeing a match to the data in each of the images. The resulting 3Dgeometry may be represented as a 3D point cloud (or “sparse 3D model”)or a 3D polygon mesh of vertices.

A point cloud is a set of data points in a coordinate system. Thecoordinate system may for example be a Cartesian coordinate system (i.e.(x,y,z)-coordinates), a cylindrical coordinate system or a sphericalcoordinate system.

Examples of SfM techniques include the generation of descriptors forcertain features of the images in the data set (BRIEF) and theapplication of corner detection (ORB).

Filtering processes may be used to remove portions of the point cloudcorresponding to moving or dynamic surfaces and to points that providelimited information (e.g. redundant points within a flat surface). Inaddition to the use of 3D point cloud data, some embodiments may alsouse additional types of environment data

Each vertex in the 3D mesh (or point in the point cloud representing the3D geometry) may by mapped (by a mapping) to respective texture data attexture coordinates in a texture map. The mapping is sometimes referredto as a “UV mapping”, so-called because the coordinates in the texturemap are conventionally referred to as “u” and “v”.

Registration of the device in an environment for which a suitable modelhas been prepared may comprise using satellite-based global positioningsystems (e.g. GPS) or other location-based systems to identify aninitial rough location estimate. Map databases may then be looked up todetermine whether a suitable 3D model is already available for a 3Dstructure or environment at the particular location identified by theidentified rough location estimate.

In the absence of a ready-prepared 3D model of a real-world object orenvironment, the device may construct its own model (i.e. 3D mesh and UVmapping from that mesh to an unpopulated texture map) from one or moreimages captured by an image capture module of the device.

When a user moves a capture device relative to real spaces/environmentsand/or stationary objects, it becomes necessary to refresh virtualcontent based on the new position of the device. However, the virtualcontent may not be displayed correctly if the spatial position (i.e.pose) of the device is not tracked accurately. Effective reproduction ofvirtual content together with real-time, captured video images,therefore, relies upon accurate tracking of the location/orientation ofthe capture device (i.e. the position of the augmented reality device inspace) and near real-time updating of the virtual content. Whereaugmented reality scenes include both real objects and virtual objects,this requires a tracking that is set and maintained between the realobjects and the virtual objects. This tracking is important tomaintaining an immersive presentation of the virtual objects within theenvironment and treating the virtual objects as if they were real withinthe environment. Failed tracking creates jitter or unexpected movementof the virtual object(s) within a scene, or may set an initial virtualobject placement that overlaps or is out of synchronization with realobjects in unnatural ways.

One way of tracking the actual location of a device is to start with ahighly accurate model of an environment, and to compare the model withimage data from a device, frame by frame. Examples of suitable modelsinclude the three-dimensional (3D) point cloud model and 3D polygon meshmodels discussed above.

Simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) systems are systems that areused to track key points in two-dimensional image frames of video, andto identify three-dimensional objects from the image frames as well as arelative location of the camera to those objects. Such processing toidentify three-dimensional objects, however, is processor and memoryintensive.

Rather than using a dense point cloud of complex environment surfaces,embodiments described herein may use compressed or simplified pointcloud models of an environment. Such simplified 3D point cloud modelsmay include sets of key point data that follow building edges,environment edges, and surfaces that are stable over time and thatpresent an easily identifiable section in an image. Path edges with highcolor contrast compared to adjacent surfaces and other fixed objects maybe represented in such a simplified point cloud, while typically dynamicobjects such as tree branches with leaves or flags may be excluded.

Increasingly, user devices such as smartphones and wearable devices arealso provided with one or more inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensorsthat monitor the orientation and direction of the device (e.g.accelerometers, gyroscopes, etc.). The information from such IMU sensorsmay be used in conjunction with visual tracking techniques (such asSLAM) to enhance the accuracy of the tracking of the user device inrelation to the real objects in the surrounding environment.

Drawings

FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing an example messaging system 100 forexchanging data (e.g., messages and associated content) over a network.The messaging system 100 includes multiple client devices 102, each ofwhich hosts a number of applications including a messaging clientapplication 104. Each messaging client application 104 iscommunicatively coupled to other instances of the messaging clientapplication 104 and a messaging server system 108 via a network 106(e.g., the Internet). One or more client companion devices 114 (e.g.,wearable devices) may be communicatively connected to one or more of theclient devices 102.

Accordingly, each messaging client application 104 is able tocommunicate and exchange data with another messaging client application104 and with the messaging server system 108 via the network 106. Thedata exchanged between messaging client applications 104, and between amessaging client application 104 and the messaging server system 108,includes functions (e.g., commands to invoke functions) as well aspayload data (e.g., text, audio, video or other multimedia data).

The messaging server system 108 provides server-side functionality viathe network 106 to a particular messaging client application 104. Whilecertain functions of the messaging system 100 are described herein asbeing performed by either a messaging client application 104 or by themessaging server system 108, it will be appreciated that the location ofcertain functionality either within the messaging client application 104or the messaging server system 108 is a design choice. For example, itmay be technically preferable to initially deploy certain technology andfunctionality within the messaging server system 108, but to latermigrate this technology and functionality to the messaging clientapplication 104 where a client device 102 has a sufficient processingcapacity.

The messaging server system 108 supports various services and operationsthat are provided to the messaging client application 104. Suchoperations include transmitting data to, receiving data from, andprocessing data generated by the messaging client application 104. Thisdata may include, message content, client device information,geolocation information, augmented reality data, media annotation andoverlays, message content persistence conditions, social networkinformation, and live event information, as examples. Data exchangeswithin the messaging system 100 are invoked and controlled throughfunctions available via user interfaces (UIs) of the messaging clientapplication 104. Examples of augmented reality data that may beexchanged using the messaging client application 104 include 3D geometryinformation corresponding to real and virtual objects.

Turning now specifically to the messaging server system 108, anApplication Program Interface (API) server 110 is coupled to, andprovides a programmatic interface to, an application server 112. Theapplication server 112 is communicatively coupled to a database server118, which facilitates access to a database 120 in which is stored dataassociated with messages processed by the application server 112.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the application server 112 hosts a number ofapplications and subsystems, including a social network system 122, anengagement tracking system 124, a messaging server application 126, animage processing system 128, and an augmented reality system 162.

Dealing specifically with the Application Program Interface (API) server110, this server receives and transmits message data (e.g., commands andmessage payloads) between the client device 102 and the applicationserver 112. Specifically, the Application Program Interface (API) server110 provides a set of interfaces (e.g., routines and protocols) that canbe called or queried by the messaging client application 104 in order toinvoke functionality of the application server 112. The ApplicationProgram Interface (API) server 110 exposes various functions supportedby the application server 112, including account registration, loginfunctionality, the sending of messages, via the application server 112,from a particular messaging client application 104 to another messagingclient application 104, the sending of media files (e.g., images orvideo) from a messaging client application 104 to the messaging serverapplication 126, and for possible access by another messaging clientapplication 104, the setting of a collection of media data (e.g.,story), the retrieval of a list of friends of a user of a client device102, the retrieval of such collections, the retrieval of messages andcontent, the adding and deletion of friends to a social graph, thelocation of friends within a social graph, opening and application event(e.g., relating to the messaging client application 104).

The messaging server application 126 implements a number of messageprocessing technologies and functions, particularly related to theaggregation and other processing of content (e.g., textual andmultimedia content) included in messages received from multipleinstances of the messaging client application 104. The text and mediacontent from multiple sources may be aggregated into collections ofcontent (the collections may be referred to as “stories” or “galleries”,depending upon context and/or content type). These collections are thenmade available, by the messaging server application 126, to themessaging client application 104. Other processor and memory intensiveprocessing of data may also be performed server-side by the messagingserver application 126, in view of the hardware requirements for suchprocessing.

The application server 112 also includes an image processing system 128that is dedicated to performing various image processing operations,typically with respect to images or video received within the payload ofa message at the messaging server application 126. Examples of imageprocessing operations include the upscaling or downscaling of the imagedata for presentation on a display of a receiving device and thetranscoding of the image data for interoperability or compression. Theimage processing operations may compensate for the differing propertiesof the individual users' cameras (e.g. exposure) when virtual imagecontent is shared between user devices providing a ‘canonical’ texturefor an imaged object. In other instances involving the sharedpresentation of the same virtual content in different user devices, thevirtual content deriving from captured image data from more than oneuser device, the image processing system 128 may operate to resolvecompeting views of the same patches of the building—if user A and user Bcan both see a patch then the server could average their views (aftercompensating for camera properties), or perhaps reject one of the views,according to an image processing policy.

The social network system 122 supports various social networkingfunctions services, and makes these functions and services available tothe messaging server application 126.

The application server 112 is communicatively coupled to a databaseserver 118, which facilitates access to a database 120 in which isstored data associated with messages processed by the messaging serverapplication 126.

The schematic diagram in FIG. 2 shows certain functional blocksillustrating the operation of a client device, according to certainexample embodiments.

The client device includes at least one processor and the processoroperates to access a UV mapping and a 3D mesh corresponding to areal-world object or environment, operation 202. This may compriseretrieving texture map and a 3D mesh (collectively representing a 3Dgeometry) from storage means (such as database 120 in communicativeconnection with application server 112). Alternatively or additionally,the texture map and 3D mesh may be received from a further clientdevice. In certain embodiments, the texture map and 3D mesh may begenerated by the client device itself.

In cases where the texture map and 3D mesh are generated by the clientdevice, this operation may be achieved using the technique illustratedin FIG. 3.

In certain example embodiments, the processor may determine thelocalization of the device relative to the real-world object orenvironment, operation 204. This initial localization may be used tonarrow the scope of the texture map and 3D mesh that the client deviceneeds to access. Examples of techniques for determining an initiallocalization may include localization of the device by a positioningsystem of the device (for instance, a positioning hardware modulecoupled to a storage medium and the at least one processor of thedevice, the positioning module may be a global positioning system (GPS)module). Alternatively, the user may input a localization directly: forexample, inputting a unique identifier (e.g., “Houses of Parliament”), apostal address, grid location in a geographic map or alatitude-longitude pair. In a further alternative, the real-world objector environment may be associated with: an information panel providedwith text, signage, a 1-D and/or 2-D barcode data; a radio-frequencyidentifier (RFID); a near-field communication (NFC) tag; or the like,that the client device may read to determine the localization.

Having determined the initial localization and accessed the texture mapand 3D mesh, the processor may execute an operation to track changes inlocalization of the device relative to the initial localization (andthus, relative to the 3D mesh corresponding to a real-world object orenvironment). Examples of techniques for tracking changes inlocalization include the SLAM and IMU techniques mentioned above.

In certain example embodiments, the processor may be placed in acreative mode, during which a user may interact with the client deviceto introduce a transformation input. The transformation input may, forexample, be a user gesture input into the device. The input gesture maybe a touch-screen input gesture or a detected change in orientation inan input device while the input device is operated in a gesture inputmode. In the latter case, the input device may be embedded within theclient device so that changes in orientation and position of the clientdevice tracked by the tracking techniques above may also be used asinput gestures.

The processor of the device may, in certain embodiments, generatevirtual content by applying a transformation corresponding to thetransformation input to the 3D mesh, operation 208. The transformationhere maps a plurality of vertices of the 3D mesh to a plurality oftransformed vertices in a transformed geometry. The transformed verticesare then populated with texture data according to the mapping andtexture data in the texture map.

Finally, at least one current image of the real-world object, capturedby an image sensor of the device, may be processed, operation 210, tosuperpose a view of the virtual content over the current image.

Examples of techniques for superposing virtual content upon images ofreal-world objects include buffering pixels for each frame of a capturereal-world image and replacing selected pixels in each frame bycorresponding pixels depicting the virtual content and then presentingthe augmented buffered pixels for display. In a further example,suitable for wearable client devices such as smart glasses, the virtualcontent is presented in an otherwise transparent display layer via adisplay module of the wearable device.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary technique for generating a texture mapand 3D mesh at a client device.

Under the control of a processor of the device, an image sensor of thedevice is controlled to capture (i.e. photograph) at least one image ofa real-world object, operation 302

The processor then determines a 3D geometry corresponding to thereal-world object based on the at least one captured image using aconventional photogrammetric technique, operation 304.

The processor then processes the at least one image to extract texturedata for respective patches of the object, operation 306.

Finally, a UV mapping is defined from the 3D geometry to a datastructure in UV space. In certain embodiments, the data structure is atleast partially populated with the extracted texture data, operation308. The 3D mesh comprises a 3D representation of the respectivevertices in the real-world object. The populated data structure ismaintained as a texture map.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary technique for tracking changes inlocalization of a client device. At operation 402, the client device isconfigured to control an image capture module to capture at least onecurrent image of the real-world object. The at least one current imageis processed to identify features (for example straight edges, patchesof lighter-than- (or darker-than-)surrounding pixels, etc.), operation404.

Changes in the location and orientation (in the or each two-dimensionalcurrent image) of the identified features are tracked (i.e. measured andstored), operation 406.

The tracked changes in the location and orientation of the identifiedfeatures are then processed, operation 408, to derive a camera pose (inthree dimensions) that, when projected onto a two-dimensional plane bestmatches the changes in location and orientation of the identifiedfeatures. Examples of techniques for deriving a camera pose from trackedpositions of features identified in captured images include theUniversity of Oxford's PTAM (Parallel Tracking and Mapping) cameratracking system (http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/˜gk/PTAM/), the FAST cornerdetection technique (https://www.edwardrosten.com/work/fast.html), SIFTand Ferns (both techniques reviewed in “Pose Tracking from NaturalFeatures on Mobile Phones” by Wagner, D. et al.https://data.icg.tugraz/at/˜dieter/publications/Schmalstieg_142.pdf),the contents of which are each incorporated by reference herein.

FIG. 5 illustrates the application of a transformation on a 3D mesh inaccordance with certain example embodiments.

A 3D geometry (corresponding to a real-world object) is represented as a3D mesh 504 and a corresponding texture map 502. The 3D geometry in FIG.5 corresponds to a real-world object in the shape of a cube. Thecube-shape is used for illustrative purposes only, with no loss ofgenerality: while real-world objects are typically more complex thancubes, the underlying principal illustrated in this Figure remainsunchanged.

FIG. 5 shows how any given point on the 3D mesh 504 maps to acorresponding coordinate in the texture map 502. The mapping 512 between3D mesh 504 and texture map 502 is conventionally referred to as a UVmapping.

When a transformation (here, for example a deformation) is applied tothe vertices in the 3D mesh, the resulting 3D geometry is represented astransformed (i.e. deformed) 3D mesh 506. In transformation mapping 514,each point on the deformed 3D mesh 506 maps to a point on the undeformedmesh 504 (and thus indirectly to a coordinate in the texture map 502).

FIG. 6A illustrates the relationship between a real-world object 602,the feed of captured images of that object displayed in a client device600 and an augmented image displayed in that device in accordance withcertain example embodiments.

By accessing (or constructing) a 3D mesh and texture map correspondingto the real-world object (as shown in FIG. 5), the client device cantake the current image of the real-world object and generate atransformed, virtual object. The transformation operates on the 3D meshmodel derived from the real-world object and, since any given point onthe 3D mesh maps to a corresponding coordinate in the texture map 502(i.e. according to UV mapping 512), a further mapping (i.e.transformation mapping 514) from the unchanged 3D mesh 504 to thetransformed 3D mesh 506 effectively permits texture data from thetexture map to be mapped onto the transformed 3D mesh 506.

The client device may present different screen-views. In FIG. 6A, thesescreen-views are represented as displayed screens on a smartphone. Acamera image view 606 displays the currently captured video image of thereal-world object from the perspective of an integral digital camera. Acorresponding texture map 502 includes texture data extracted fromvisible and unoccluded points of the real-world object (i.e. sides A, Band C of the imaged object).

The texture map 502 may also include pre-existing texture data for someor all points of the object that are currently out of the field of viewof the smartphone camera (i.e. sides D, E and F of the imaged object).For objects with permanent foundations in the surrounding environment(such as buildings, bridges etc.), it may safely be assumed that certainaspects of the object are permanently out of view. In certainembodiments, the pre-existing texture data for some or all points of theobject may be supplied by reference to a shared texture map for thereal-world object and/or the texture map of a second client devicehaving a different perspective upon the object. Pre-existing texturedata for some or all points of the object may be accessed from otherclient devices and/or shared storage servers via the operation of amessaging system such as that illustrated in FIG. 1A.

The client device in FIG. 6A may also present an augmented reality imageview 608. Here, the client device displays a virtual view of thetransformed 3D mesh 506 and, for each point on the transformed 3D mesh506 that is in the virtual view, fetches texture data from the texturemap 502 according to the UV mapping 512 to points on the original 3Dmesh and the transformation mapping 514 from the original points topoints in the transformed 3D mesh. It is noted that due to thetransformation, counterparts to certain points of the object visible inthe camera view are no longer visible in the virtual view.

In certain embodiments, where the original point on the building thatcorresponds to a deformed point is visible and unoccluded in the currentcamera feed, the texture data for those visible points may be readdirectly from the camera feed. Thus, in FIG. 6A, texture data for facesA, B and C are available directly from the camera feed as faces A, B andC are all visible. This provides a more accurate perceived match to thereal-world object and a resulting higher quality user experience.

To safeguard against future changes in camera angle and position, thetexture data for all points of the object in the currently capture videoframe are cached in the texture map 502. Texture data for visible andunoccluded points replaces any pre-existing texture data in the texturemap 502.

In certain example embodiments, the replacement of pre-existing texturedata is performed gradually in a weighted blending fashion. The accuracyof the pre-existing texture data is thus improved by merging that datawith newly captured texture data, so that every pixel in the texture map(or shared texture map) essentially converges over time to a resultingtexture data that represents the consensus data for that pixel, givenenough views. For each successive frame, the current camera image isassigned a tracking reliability value and this value is then used toweight the blending. For example, frames where the camera is moving agreat deal (e.g. detected using IMU sensors such as integrated gyroscopeand/or accelerometer) and thus the image can be expected to include ahigher level of motion blur than it would at rest are given lowertracking reliability values (as the tracking is likely to be lessaccurate) and pixels from such frames are given less weight as a result.

FIG. 6B provides a further illustration of the relationship between areal-world object 602, the feed of captured images of that objectdisplayed in a client device 600 and an augmented image displayed inthat device in accordance with certain example embodiments.

FIG. 6B illustrates the result of a change 610 in the perspective of theclient device from the camera position in which sides A and B are inview to a camera image view 616 where a more limited view of thereal-world object (predominantly side C) is available from theperspective of the integral digital camera of the client device 600.Changes in localization and orientation of the client device may betracked by any of the tracking techniques discussed above.

In this case, the texture data for sides A and B in the texture map 502may also include texture data cached from previous frames of capturedvideo—captured before the points of the object on sides A and B passedout of the field of view of the smartphone camera.

As a result, the client device 600 in FIG. 6B may also present anaugmented reality image view 618. In augmented reality image view 618,the client device displays a virtual view of the transformed 3D mesh506. As in FIG. 6A, the processor of the client device 600 fetchestexture data from the texture map 502 according to the transformationmapping 514 between points on the original 3D mesh 504 and points in thetransformed 3D mesh 506, for each point on the transformed 3D mesh 506that is in the virtual view. In this case, however, certain points ofthe object are no longer visible in the camera view but counterparts tothose points are still visible in the virtual view. The generation ofthe virtual view includes accessing texture data for points visible inboth current camera image view 616 and augmented reality image view 618directly from the current camera view data and accessing texture datafor points visible only in the augmented reality image view 618 byreferring to the cached texture data at a corresponding point in thetexture map 502. The latter path relies upon the application of both theUV mapping and then the transformation mapping to supply theu,v-coordinate for the texture data for points visible only in theaugmented reality image view 618.

While the transformation illustrated in FIGS. 5, 6A and 6B is a uniformdeformation of vertical lines into skewed curved lines, thetransformation may take many other, often more complicated, forms.Examples of other transformations include replications (in which blocksof the original 3D mesh are replicated at more than one location in thevirtual content space and the texture data from the texture map ismapped to vertices in each of the replicated blocks), reflections (inwhich part or all of the vertices in a 3D mesh are mirrored) andtranslations (in which part or all of an original 3D mesh is mapped toan undistorted 3D mesh at a spatial offset in virtual content space fromthe location of the original real-world object). Reflection-typetransformations may be used to ensure that signage in the virtualcontent space remains human-readable while the surrounding virtualcontent is mirror-reflected.

Caching of texture data is important because it facilitates populationof virtual content without requiring heavy use of computationalcapacity.

In certain embodiments, a dynamic texture map is maintained as a texturecache. The texture map corresponds to a projection of the vertices in a3D polygonal mesh of a building or other real-world object orenvironment. The mapping between 3D mesh and texture map mightalternatively be referred to as a “UV mapping” as the vertices in the 3Dmesh (represented by Cartesian coordinates {x, y, z}) are projected to atwo-dimensional map with coordinates{u,v}. The texture cache may beinitialized with default texture data, for example, RGBA (0, 0, 0, 0).

As the image capture module of the client device captures frames ofvideo data, the device stores what has been seen by the camera in thecurrent frame at respective pixels of the texture cache.

To perform the caching for a single frame, a 3D mesh that corresponds tothe real-world object being imaged is accessed. The 3D mesh is firstmapped (i.e. rendered) to the texture cache in UV space (i.e. a UVmapping is generated). For every pixel of the 3D mesh in UV space, thecorresponding world position is calculated and then the correspondingcoordinates in the current camera image are calculated.

To determine whether the texture data for any given pixel of the 3D meshin UV space is to be cached (at a corresponding u,v-coordinate), it isdetermined whether that pixel corresponds to coordinates that areoutside of the camera frame. If the coordinates do lie outside of thecamera frame there will be no camera image texture data to cache, sothese pixels are not cached.

Equally, it is determined whether the surface on which any given pixelof the 3D mesh lies is behind another surface of the 3D mesh from thecamera's point of view. If the surface is determined to be behind (i.e.occluded by) another surface, the corresponding camera image pixel willnot be the correct surface and again pixels on that occluded surface arenot cached.

Determining whether a surface is occluded by another surface may beachieved by first rendering, with depth-buffering, the view-space depthsof the original 3D mesh and then checking whether the calculated depthof the pixel in that 3D mesh is equal to the rendered depth (and thusthat pixel is indeed on the closest surface to the camera).

If the candidate cached pixel is valid (i.e. within camera frame and oneclosest surface) then texture data for that pixel is cached in thetexture map. In certain embodiments, the texture data may simply replacepre-existing texture data currently stored for that u,v-coordinate. Inother embodiments, the texture data may be merged with pre-existingtexture data with a low opacity for temporal smoothing. The alphachannel in the RGBA representation of texture data may thus representhow much caching has been done for that pixel.

In many implementations, the image capture devices (e.g. digital camerasintegrated in users' smartphones) frequently change their exposuresettings depending on the current target image. In certain embodiments,whenever a pixel from the current frame of a given camera image is to bestored in the cache texture/texture map, an exposure compensationfunction is applied to normalise the current camera exposure before thenormalized value is written to storage. As a result, the stored pixelhas a color value that has been effectively normalized in brightness.Whenever a pixel is to be retrieved (i.e. the texture data to be read)from the cache texture/texture map, an inverse exposure compensationfunction is applied to the normalized value in order to match thecurrent camera exposure.

Examples of virtual content effects using the transformation techniquedescribed herein include effects in which a mirror image or duplicate ofa real-world building may be erected in virtual space and displayedbeside the real-world object in an augmented reality screen view.

The transformation technique of the present disclosure may be used tomock-up a cityscape, adding additional levels to apartment blocks and/orreplicating existing and placing additional buildings in a virtual view.FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a transformation effect in which a new levelis inserted in an augmented reality view of a building in accordancewith certain embodiments of the present invention. Whereas the cameraimage view in FIG. 7A shows a building with four rows of windows, theaugmented reality screen view in FIG. 7B shows a building with six rows,the lower levels with two rows of windows being duplicated and“inserted” between the existing levels.

The transformation technique of the present disclosure may also be usedto pass information between two devices. With a first client devicereceiving creative input that defines a transformation to be applied toa view of a real-world object (for example, entering text or imageinformation by gesture, touch input or keyboard entry) and generatingvirtual content that may be shared with another user in a differentposition relative to the real-world object. FIGS. 8A and 8B illustratethe application of the transformation in accordance with certainembodiments of the present invention to messaging. FIG. 8A shows acamera image view of a building. FIG. 8B illustrates an augmentedreality screen-view of the same building with a message “I ♥ N Y”constructed by mapping elements of the fabric of the imaged building toprovide the “structure” of the characters in the message.

Software Architecture

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example software architecture906, which may be used in conjunction with various hardwarearchitectures herein described. FIG. 9 is a non-limiting example of asoftware architecture and it will be appreciated that many otherarchitectures may be implemented to facilitate the functionalitydescribed herein. The software architecture 906 can be installed on anyone or more of the client devices 102 described above.

A representative hardware layer 952 is illustrated and can represent thehardware of a client device such as that illustrated in FIG. 1A. Therepresentative hardware layer 952 includes a processing unit 954 havingassociated executable instructions 904. Executable instructions 904represent the executable instructions of the software architecture 906,including implementation of the methods, components and so forthdescribed herein. The hardware layer 952 also includes memory and/orstorage modules memory/storage 956, which also have executableinstructions 904. The hardware layer 952 may also comprise otherhardware 958. A more detailed diagram of a non-limiting example of amachine 1000 implementing the hardware layer is shown in FIG. 10: thatmachine includes, among other things, processors 1004, memory 1014, andI/O components 1018.

In the example architecture of FIG. 9, the software architecture 906 maybe conceptualized as a stack of layers where each layer providesparticular functionality. For example, the software architecture 906 mayinclude layers such as an operating system 902, libraries 920 (i.e. adata layer), applications 916 (i.e. an application layer) and apresentation layer 914. Operationally, the applications 916 and/or othercomponents within the layers may invoke application programminginterface (API) API calls 908 through the software stack and receive aresponse as in response to the API calls 908 (i.e. an interface layer).The layers illustrated are representative in nature and not all softwarearchitectures have all layers. For example, some mobile or specialpurpose operating systems may not provide a frameworks/middleware 918,while others may provide such a layer. Other software architectures mayinclude additional or different layers.

The operating system 902 may manage hardware resources and providecommon services. The operating system 902 may include, for example, akernel 922, services 924 and drivers 926. The kernel 922 may act as anabstraction layer between the hardware and the other software layers.For example, the kernel 922 may be responsible for memory management,processor management (e.g., scheduling), component management,networking, security settings, and so on. The services 924 may provideother common services for the other software layers. The drivers 926 areresponsible for controlling or interfacing with the underlying hardware.For instance, the drivers 926 include display drivers, camera drivers,inertial measurement unit (IMU) drivers, Bluetooth® drivers, flashmemory drivers, serial communication drivers (e.g., Universal Serial Bus(USB) drivers), Wi-Fi® drivers, audio drivers, power management drivers,and so forth depending on the hardware configuration.

The libraries 920 provide a common infrastructure that is used by theapplications 916 and/or other components and/or layers. The libraries920 provide functionality that allows other software components toperform tasks in an easier fashion than to interface directly with theunderlying operating system 902 functionality (e.g., kernel 922,services 924 and/or drivers 926). The libraries 920 may include systemlibraries 944 (e.g., C standard library) that may provide functions suchas memory allocation functions, string manipulation functions,mathematical functions, and the like. In addition, the libraries 920 mayinclude API libraries 946 such as media libraries (e.g., libraries tosupport presentation and manipulation of various media format such asMPREG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG), graphics libraries (e.g., anOpenGL framework that may be used to render 2D and 3D in a graphiccontent on a display), database libraries (e.g., SQLite that may providevarious relational database functions), web libraries (e.g., WebKit thatmay provide web browsing functionality), and the like. The libraries 920may also include a wide variety of other libraries 948 to provide manyother APIs to the applications 916 and other softwarecomponents/modules.

The frameworks/middleware 918 (also sometimes referred to as middleware)provide a higher-level common infrastructure that may be used by theapplications 916 and/or other software components/modules. For example,the frameworks/middleware 918 may provide various graphic user interface(GUI) functions, high-level resource management, high-level locationservices, and so forth. The frameworks/middleware 918 may provide abroad spectrum of other APIs that may be utilized by the applications916 and/or other software components/modules, some of which may bespecific to a particular operating system 902 or platform.

The applications 916 include built-in applications 938 and/orthird-party applications 940. Examples of representative built-inapplications 938 may include, but are not limited to, a contactsapplication, a browser application, a book reader application, alocation application, a media application, a messaging application,and/or a game application. Third-party applications 940 may include anapplication developed using the ANDROID™ or IOS™ software developmentkit (SDK) by an entity other than the vendor of the particular platform,and may be mobile software running on a mobile operating system such asIOS™, ANDROID™, WINDOWS® Phone, or other mobile operating systems. Thethird-party applications 940 may invoke the API calls 908 provided bythe mobile operating system (such as operating system 902) to facilitatefunctionality described herein. The applications 916 may include anaugmented reality client application 942.

The augmented reality application 942 may implement any system or methoddescribed herein, including accessing map information, processing imageand point cloud data and feature matching, or any other operationdescribed herein. Further, in some embodiments, a messaging applicationand the augmented reality application 942 may operate together as partof an ephemeral messaging application. Such an ephemeral messagingapplication may operate to generate images, allow users to add augmentedreality elements to the images, and communicate some or all of theimages and/or augmented reality data to another system user. After adeletion trigger has been met, the sent data is communicated from thereceiving user's system, and may also be synchronized to delete theimages and/or augmented reality data from any server involved incommunication of the ephemeral message that included the image and/orthe augmented reality data. In some embodiments, the trigger fordeletion of data from a receiving user's device may be a timer thatindicates how long an augmented reality image is displayed for. In otherembodiments, the ephemeral messaging system may have set date and timetriggers for deletion, or deletion associated with a number of timesthat a receiving user has accessed the data.

The applications 916 may use built in operating system functions (e.g.,kernel 922, services 924 and/or drivers 926), libraries 920, andframeworks/middleware 918 to create user interfaces to interact withusers of the system. Alternatively, or additionally, in some systemsinteractions with a user may occur through a presentation layer, such aspresentation layer 914. In these systems, the application/component“logic” can be separated from the aspects of the application/componentthat interact with a user.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine 1000,according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from amachine-readable medium (e.g., a machine-readable storage medium) andperform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.Specifically, FIG. 10 shows a diagrammatic representation of the machine1000 in the example form of a computer system, within which instructions1010 (e.g., software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, orother executable code) for causing the machine 1000 to perform any oneor more of the methodologies discussed herein may be executed. As such,the instructions 1010 may be used to implement modules or componentsdescribed herein. The instructions 1010 transform the general,non-programmed machine 1000 into a particular machine 1000 programmed tocarry out the described and illustrated functions in the mannerdescribed. In alternative embodiments, the machine 1000 operates as astandalone device or may be coupled (e.g., networked) to other machines.In a networked deployment, the machine 1000 may operate in the capacityof a server machine or a client machine in a server-client networkenvironment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed)network environment. The machine 1000 may comprise, but not be limitedto, a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC), atablet computer, a laptop computer, a netbook, a set-top box (STB), apersonal digital assistant (PDA), an entertainment media system, acellular telephone, a smart phone, a mobile device, a wearable device(e.g., a smart watch), a smart home device (e.g., a smart appliance),other smart devices, a web appliance, a network router, a networkswitch, a network bridge, or any machine capable of executing theinstructions 1010, sequentially or otherwise, that specify actions to betaken by machine 1000. Further, while only a single machine 1000 isillustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include acollection of machines that individually or jointly execute theinstructions 1010 to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

The machine 1000 may include processors 1004, memory/storage 1006, andI/O components 1018, which may be configured to communicate with eachother such as via a bus 1002. The memory/storage 1006 may include amemory 1014, such as a main memory, or other memory storage, and astorage unit 1016, both accessible to the processors 1004 such as viathe bus 1002. The storage unit 1016 and memory 1014 store theinstructions 1010 embodying any one or more of the methodologies orfunctions described herein. The instructions 1010 may also reside,completely or partially, within the memory 1014, within the storage unit1016, within at least one of the processors 1004 (e.g., within theprocessor's cache memory), or any suitable combination thereof, duringexecution thereof by the machine 1000. Accordingly, the memory 1014, thestorage unit 1016, and the memory of processors 1004 are examples ofmachine-readable media.

The I/O components 1018 may include a wide variety of components toreceive input, provide output, produce output, transmit information,exchange information, capture measurements, and so on. The specific I/Ocomponents 1018 that are included in a particular machine 1000 willdepend on the type of machine. For example, portable machines such asmobile phones will likely include a touch input device or other suchinput mechanisms, while a headless server machine will likely notinclude such a touch input device. It will be appreciated that the I/Ocomponents 1018 may include many other components that are not shown inFIG. 10. The I/O components 1018 are grouped according to functionalitymerely for simplifying the following discussion and the grouping is inno way limiting. In various example embodiments, the I/O components 1018may include output components 1026 and input components 1028. The outputcomponents 1026 may include visual components (e.g., a display such as aplasma display panel (PDP), a light emitting diode (LED) display, aliquid crystal display (LCD), a projector, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)),acoustic components (e.g., speakers), haptic components (e.g., avibratory motor, resistance mechanisms), other signal generators, and soforth. The input components 1028 may include alphanumeric inputcomponents (e.g., a keyboard, a touch screen configured to receivealphanumeric input, a photo-optical keyboard, or other alphanumericinput components), point based input components (e.g., a mouse, atouchpad, a trackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or other pointinginstrument), tactile input components (e.g., a physical button, a touchscreen that provides location and/or force of touches or touch gestures,or other tactile input components), audio input components (e.g., amicrophone), and the like. The input components 1028 may also includeone or more image-capturing devices, such as a digital camera forgenerating digital images and/or video.

In further example embodiments, the I/O components 1018 may includebiometric components 1030, motion components 1034, environmentalenvironment components 1036, or position components 1038 among a widearray of other components. For example, the biometric components 1030may include components to detect expressions (e.g., hand expressions,facial expressions, vocal expressions, body gestures, or eye tracking),measure biosignals (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature,perspiration, or brain waves), identify a person (e.g., voiceidentification, retinal identification, facial identification,fingerprint identification, or electroencephalogram basedidentification), and the like. The motion components 1034 may includeacceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometer), gravitation sensorcomponents, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscope), and so forth.The environment components 1036 may include, for example, illuminationsensor components (e.g., photometer), temperature sensor components(e.g., one or more thermometer that detect ambient temperature),humidity sensor components, pressure sensor components (e.g.,barometer), acoustic sensor components (e.g., one or more microphonesthat detect background noise), proximity sensor components (e.g.,infrared sensors that detect nearby objects), gas sensors (e.g., gasdetection sensors to detection concentrations of hazardous gases forsafety or to measure pollutants in the atmosphere), or other componentsthat may provide indications, measurements, or signals corresponding toa surrounding physical environment. The position components 1038 mayinclude location sensor components (e.g., a Global Position system (GPS)receiver component), altitude sensor components (e.g., altimeters orbarometers that detect air pressure from which altitude may be derived),orientation sensor components (e.g., magnetometers), and the like.

Communication may be implemented using a wide variety of technologies.The I/O components 1018 may include communication components 1040operable to couple the machine 1000 to a network 1032 or devices 1020via coupling 1022 and coupling 1024 respectively. For example, thecommunication components 1040 may include a network interface componentor other suitable device to interface with the network 1032. In furtherexamples, communication components 1040 may include wired communicationcomponents, wireless communication components, cellular communicationcomponents, Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth®components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and othercommunication components to provide communication via other modalities.The devices 1020 may be another machine or any of a wide variety ofperipheral devices (e.g., a peripheral device coupled via a UniversalSerial Bus (USB)).

Moreover, the communication components 1040 may detect identifiers orinclude components operable to detect identifiers. For example, thecommunication components 1040 may include Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) tag reader components, NFC smart tag detection components,optical reader components (e.g., an optical sensor to detectone-dimensional bar codes such as Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code,multi-dimensional bar codes such as Quick Response (QR) code, Azteccode, Data Matrix, Dataglyph, MaxiCode, PDF417, Ultra Code, UCC RSS-2Dbar code, and other optical codes), or acoustic detection components(e.g., microphones to identify tagged audio signals). In addition, avariety of information may be derived via the communication components1040, such as, location via Internet Protocol (IP) geo-location,location via Wi-Fi® signal triangulation, location via detecting a NFCbeacon signal that may indicate a particular location, and so forth.

The instructions 1010 can be transmitted or received over the network1032 using a transmission medium via a network interface device (e.g., anetwork interface component included in the communication components1064) and utilizing any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols(e.g., HTTP). Similarly, the instructions 1010 can be transmitted orreceived using a transmission medium via the coupling 1022 (e.g., apeer-to-peer coupling) to devices 1020. The term “transmission medium”shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding, or carrying the instructions 1010 for execution bythe machine 1000, and includes digital or analog communications signals(i.e., carrier signals) or other intangible medium to facilitatecommunication of such software.

Throughout this specification, plural instances may implementcomponents, operations, or structures described as a single instance.Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustratedand described as separate operations, one or more of the individualoperations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that theoperations be performed in the order illustrated. Structures andfunctionality presented as separate components in example configurationsmay be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly,structures and functionality presented as a single component may beimplemented as separate components. These and other variations,modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of thesubject matter herein.

Although an overview of the inventive subject matter has been describedwith reference to specific example embodiments, various modificationsand changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from thebroader scope of embodiments of the present disclosure. Such embodimentsof the inventive subject matter may be referred to herein, individuallyor collectively, by the term “invention” merely for convenience andwithout intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application toany single disclosure or inventive concept if more than one is, in fact,disclosed.

The embodiments illustrated herein are described in sufficient detail toenable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed.Other embodiments may be used and derived therefrom, such thatstructural and logical substitutions and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of this disclosure. The Detailed Description,therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope ofvarious embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along withthe full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

As used herein, the term “or” may be construed in either an inclusive orexclusive sense. Moreover, plural instances may be provided forresources, operations, or structures described herein as a singleinstance. Additionally, boundaries between various resources,operations, modules, engines, and data stores are somewhat arbitrary,and particular operations are illustrated in a context of specificillustrative configurations. Other allocations of functionality areenvisioned and may fall within a scope of various embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In general, structures and functionality presentedas separate resources in the example configurations may be implementedas a combined structure or resource. Similarly, structures andfunctionality presented as a single resource may be implemented asseparate resources. These and other variations, modifications,additions, and improvements fall within a scope of embodiments of thepresent disclosure as represented by the appended claims. Thespecification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

It should also be noted that the present disclosure can also takeconfigurations in accordance with the following numbered clauses:

Clause 1. A computer-implemented method for displaying virtual contentin a client device comprising, at a processor of the device: accessing atexture map and a 3D mesh corresponding to a real-world object orenvironment; determining localization of the device relative to thereal-world object or environment; tracking changes in localization ofthe device; in a creative mode, receiving a transformation input;generating virtual content by applying a transformation corresponding tothe transformation input to the 3D mesh, the transformation mapping aplurality of vertices of the 3D mesh to a plurality of transformedvertices in a transformed geometry and populating the transformedvertices with texture data according to the mapping and the texture map;and processing at least one current image of the real-world object,captured by an image sensor of the device, to superpose a view of thevirtual content over the current image.

Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein accessing a texture map and 3Dmesh comprises: capturing, by an image sensor of the device, at leastone image of a real-world object; determining a three-dimensional (3D)geometry corresponding to the object based on the at least one capturedimage; processing the at least one image to extract texture data forrespective patches of the object; and populating at least a portion of adata structure for storing texture data, the data structure mapping thetexture data to vertices in the 3D geometry, the 3D mesh comprising a 3Drepresentation of the respective vertices in the 3D geometry and thetexture map being the populated data structure.

Clause 3. The method of clause 2, further comprising caching the texturedata for all vertices in a current camera frame by storing the populateddata structure in a storage medium.

Clause 4. The method of clause 3, wherein populating the transformedvertices with texture data comprises: for each transformed vertex,determining whether the vertex of the 3D mesh is visible in the currentcamera frame; where the vertex of the 3D mesh is visible in the currentcamera frame, populating the transformed vertex with the texture dataextracted at the corresponding visible vertex; and where the vertex ofthe 3D mesh is not visible in the current camera frame, accessing thepopulated data structure in the storage medium, obtain cached texturedata for the vertex, and populating the transformed vertex with thecached texture data.

Clause 5. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 4, wherein trackingchanges in localization of the device comprises: capturing at least onecurrent image of the real-world object; identifying features in the atleast one current image; tracking changes in location and orientation ofthe identified features; and processing the detected changes inlocalization and orientation of the identified features to generate areal-time camera pose relative to the object.

Clause 6. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 5, wherein the processoris a graphical processor unit (GPU).

Clause 7. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 6, wherein localizationof the device is determined by a positioning system of the device.

Clause 8. The method of clause 7, wherein the positioning systemcomprises at least a first positioning hardware module coupled to astorage medium and the at least one processor of the device.

Clause 9. The method of clause 8, wherein the first positioning hardwaremodule is a global positioning system (GPS) module.

Clause 10. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 9, wherein obtainingthe first position estimate comprises receiving a user input positionestimate.

Clause 11. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 10, wherein at leastone vertex in the 3D mesh maps to two or more transformed vertices inthe transformed geometry.

Clause 12. The method of clause 11, wherein the transformation includesa reflection, deformation, duplication, or translation.

Clause 13. The method of clause 11 or clause 12, wherein thetransformation corresponds to a user gesture input into the device.

Clause 14. The method of clause 13, wherein the input gesture is atouch-screen input gesture.

Clause 15. The method of clause 13 or clause 14, wherein the inputgesture includes a change in orientation in an input device while theinput device is operated in a gesture input mode.

Clause 16. The method of any one of clauses 1 to 15, wherein obtaining atexture map and 3D mesh comprises: receiving the texture map and 3D meshfrom a second device.

Clause 17. A computer-implemented method for displaying virtual contentin a client device comprising, at a processor of the device: obtaining atexture map and a 3D mesh corresponding to a real-world object orenvironment; determining localization of the device relative to thereal-world object or environment; tracking changes in localization ofthe device; in a sharing mode, receiving transformation information froma source device; generating virtual content by applying a sharedtransformation corresponding to the transformation information to the 3Dmesh, the shared transformation mapping each of the vertices of the 3Dmesh to transformed vertices in a transformed geometry and populatingthe transformed vertices with texture data according to the mapping andthe texture map; and processing at least one current image of thereal-world object, captured by an image sensor of the device, tosuperpose a view of the virtual content over the current image.

Clause 18. The method of clause 17, wherein the texture map is stored asa populated data structure in a storage medium in the device, the methodfurther comprising replacing the texture data at vertices in the texturemap by current texture data for all vertices visible in a current cameraframe.

Clause 19. The method of clause 17 or clause 18, wherein populating thetransformed vertices with texture data comprises: for each transformedvertex, determining whether the vertex of the 3D mesh is visible in thecurrent camera frame; where the vertex of the 3D mesh is visible in thecurrent camera frame, populating the transformed vertex with the texturedata extracted at the corresponding visible vertex; and where the vertexof the 3D mesh is not visible in the current camera frame, accessing thepopulated data structure in the storage medium, obtaining cached texturedata for the vertex, and populating the transformed vertex with thecached texture data.

Clause 20. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions that, whenperformed by a device, cause the device to perform a method comprising:obtaining a texture map and a three-dimensional (3D) geometrycorresponding to a real 3D structure, the texture map being at leastpartially populated with texture data, there being a first mappingbetween points on the 3D geometry and coordinates in the texture map;tracking changes in localization of the device; entering atransformation input state; receiving a transformation input; generatingvirtual content by applying a transformation corresponding to thetransformation input to the 3D geometry, the transformation being asecond mapping from a plurality of points in the 3D geometry to aplurality of transformed points in a transformed 3D geometry andpopulating the transformed points with texture data according to thefirst and second mappings and the texture map; and processing at leastone current image of the real-world object, captured by an image sensorof the device, to superpose a view of the virtual content over thecurrent image.

Clause 21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 20comprising further instructions that, when performed by a device, causethe device to perform further method steps of: determining localizationof the device relative to the real 3D structure; establishing acommunicative connection with an external device; transmitting a requestmessage including information corresponding to the determinedlocalization; and receiving the texture map and the 3D geometry from theexternal device in accordance with the determined localization.

Clause 22. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of clause 20 orclause 21, wherein obtaining the texture map and the 3D geometrycomprises: receiving, from an image sensor of the device, at least oneimage of the real 3D structure; determining a 3D geometry correspondingto the 3D structure based on the at least one captured image, the 3Dgeometry comprising a 3D representation of respective points in the 3Dstructure; processing the at least one image to extract texture data forpoints of the 3D structure that are visible and not occluded in the atleast one image; and populating at least a portion of a data structurewith the extracted texture data according to the first mapping, thepopulated data structure being the texture map.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for displayingvirtual content in a client device comprising, at a processor of thedevice: accessing a texture map and a 3D mesh corresponding to areal-world object or environment; tracking changes in localization ofthe device; in a creative mode, receiving a transformation input;generating virtual content by applying a transformation corresponding tothe transformation input to the 3D mesh, the transformation mapping aplurality of vertices of the 3D mesh to a plurality of transformedvertices in a transformed geometry and populating the transformedvertices with texture data according to the mapping and the texture map;and processing at least one current image of the real-world object,captured by an image sensor of the device, to superpose a view of thevirtual content over the current image.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein accessing a texture map and 3D mesh comprises: capturing, by animage sensor of the device, at least one image of a real-world object;determining a three-dimensional (3D) geometry corresponding to theobject based on the at least one captured image; processing the at leastone image to extract texture data for respective patches of the object;and populating at least a portion of a data structure for storingtexture data, the data structure mapping the texture data to vertices inthe 3D geometry, the 3D mesh comprising a 3D representation of therespective vertices in the 3D geometry and the texture map being thepopulated data structure.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprisingcaching the texture data for all vertices in a current camera frame bystoring the populated data structure in a storage medium.
 4. The methodof claim 3, wherein populating the transformed vertices with texturedata comprises: for each transformed vertex, determining whether thevertex of the 3D mesh is visible in the current camera frame; where thevertex of the 3D mesh is visible in the current camera frame, populatingthe transformed vertex with the texture data extracted at thecorresponding visible vertex; and where the vertex of the 3D mesh is notvisible in the current camera frame, accessing the populated datastructure in the storage medium, obtain cached texture data for thevertex, and populating the transformed vertex with the cached texturedata.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the texture map andthe 3D mesh comprises: determining localization of the device relativeto the real-world object or environment; and retrieving the texture mapand the 3D mesh from an external device in accordance with thedetermined localization, the external device being in communicativeconnection with the device.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinlocalization of the device is determined by a positioning system of thedevice.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the positioning systemcomprises at least a first positioning hardware module coupled to astorage medium and the at least one processor of the device.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the first positioning hardware module is aglobal positioning system (GPS) module.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein tracking changes in localization of the device comprises:capturing at least one current image of the real-world object;identifying features in the at least one current image; tracking changesin location and orientation of the identified features; and processingthe detected changes in localization and orientation of the identifiedfeatures to generate a real-time camera pose relative to the object. 10.The method of claim 1, wherein the processor is a graphical processorunit (GPU).
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the firstposition estimate comprises receiving a user input position estimate.12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one vertex in the 3D meshmaps to two or more transformed vertices in the transformed geometry.13. The method of claim 1, wherein the transformation is at least one ofa reflection, a deformation, a duplication, or a spatial translation.14. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining a texture map and 3D meshcomprises: receiving the texture map and 3D mesh from a second device.15. A computer-implemented method for displaying virtual content in aclient device comprising, at a processor of the device: obtaining atexture map and a 3D mesh corresponding to a real-world object orenvironment; determining localization of the device relative to thereal-world object or environment; tracking changes in localization ofthe device; in a sharing mode, receiving transformation information froma source device; generating virtual content by applying a sharedtransformation corresponding to the transformation information to the 3Dmesh, the shared transformation mapping each of the vertices of the 3Dmesh to transformed vertices in a transformed geometry and populatingthe transformed vertices with texture data according to the mapping andthe texture map; and processing at least one current image of thereal-world object, captured by an image sensor of the device, tosuperpose a view of the virtual content over the current image.
 16. Themethod of claim 15, wherein the texture map is stored as a populateddata structure in a storage medium in the device, the method furthercomprising replacing the texture data at vertices in the texture map bycurrent texture data for all vertices visible in a current camera frame.17. The method of claim 16, wherein populating the transformed verticeswith texture data comprises: for each transformed vertex, determiningwhether the vertex of the 3D mesh is visible in the current cameraframe; where the vertex of the 3D mesh is visible in the current cameraframe, populating the transformed vertex with the texture data extractedat the corresponding visible vertex; and where the vertex of the 3D meshis not visible in the current camera frame, accessing the populated datastructure in the storage medium, obtaining cached texture data for thevertex, and populating the transformed vertex with the cached texturedata.
 18. A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprisinginstructions that, when performed by a device, cause the device toperform a method comprising: obtaining a texture map and athree-dimensional (3D) geometry corresponding to a real 3D structure,the texture map being at least partially populated with texture data,there being a first mapping between points on the 3D geometry andcoordinates in the texture map; tracking changes in localization of thedevice; entering a transformation input state; receiving atransformation input; generating virtual content by applying atransformation corresponding to the transformation input to the 3Dgeometry, the transformation being a second mapping from a plurality ofpoints in the 3D geometry to a plurality of transformed points in atransformed 3D geometry and populating the transformed points withtexture data according to the first and second mappings and the texturemap; and processing at least one current image of the real-world object,captured by an image sensor of the device, to superpose a view of thevirtual content over the current image.
 19. The non-transitorymachine-readable medium of claim 18, comprising further instructionsthat, when performed by a device, cause the device to perform furthermethod steps of: determining localization of the device relative to thereal 3D structure; establishing a communicative connection with anexternal device; transmitting a request message including informationcorresponding to the determined localization; and receiving the texturemap and the 3D geometry from the external device in accordance with thedetermined localization.
 20. The non-transitory machine-readable mediumof claim 18, wherein obtaining the texture map and the 3D geometrycomprises: receiving, from an image sensor of the device, at least oneimage of the real 3D structure; determining a 3D geometry correspondingto the 3D structure based on the at least one captured image, the 3Dgeometry comprising a 3D representation of respective points in the 3Dstructure; processing the at least one image to extract texture data forpoints of the 3D structure that are visible and not occluded in the atleast one image; and populating at least a portion of a data structurewith the extracted texture data according to the first mapping, thepopulated data structure being the texture map.